10 pages, Enormous quantities of data are generated through social and online media in the era of Web 2.0. Understanding consumer perceptions or demand efficiently and cost effectively remains a focus for economists, retailer/consumer sciences, and production industries. Most of the efforts to understand demand for food products rely on reports of past market performance along with survey data. Given the movement of content-generation online to lay users via social media, the potential to capture market-influencing shifts in sentiment exists in online data. This analysis presents a novel approach to studying consumer perceptions of production system attributes using eggs and laying hen housing, which have received significant attention in recent years. The housing systems cage-free and free-range had the greatest number of online hits in the searches conducted, compared with the other laying hen housing types. Less online discussion surrounded enriched cages, which were found by other methods/researchers to meet many key consumer preferences. These results, in conjunction with insights into net sentiment and words associated with different laying hen housing in online and social media, exemplify how social media listening may complement traditional methods to inform decision-makers regarding agribusiness marketing, food systems, management, and regulation. Employing web-derived data for decision-making within agrifood firms offers the opportunity for actionable insights tailored to individual businesses or products.
Available via HathiTrust.org., Online via keyword search of UI Library eCatalog, Case study of 126 residents from a metropolitan area who, during the 1981-82 Mediterranean Fruitfly Crisis, were undergoing exposure to aerial spraying with a pesticide. Findings exemplified the difficulties facing decision makers and the public in uncertain risk situations such as this, as well as the politicization of risk.
Clay, D.E. (author), Ren, C. (author), Reese, C. (author), Waskom, R. (author), Bauder, J. (author), Mesner, N. (author), Paige, G. (author), Reddy, K. (author), Neibauer, M. (author), and Mahler, R. (author)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2004
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C27112
5 pages., Author concludes that "genetic information is easy to portray as a new and scary technology, but fearmongering is largely based on misinformation, a misunderstanding of evolution and our place in the natural world, and vague fears of contamination. In reality, GMO safety testing is extensive and has not uncovered any safety concerns for current GMOs. There are other issues with GMOs that are worth discussing, but fears of adverse health effects are not legitimate." Cites a review of research ty the European Commission in 2010: "The main conclusion to be drawn from the efforts of more than 130 research projects, covering a period of more than 25 years of research and involving more than 500 independent research groups, is that biotechnology, and in particular GMOs, are not per se more risky than e.g. conventional plant breeding technologies."
19 pages., Via online journal., While in vitro animal meat (IVM) is not yet commercially available, the public has already begun to form opinions of IVM as a result of news stories and events drawing attention to its development. As such, we can discern public perceptions of the ethics of IVM before its commercial release. This affords advocates of environmentally sustainable, healthy, and just diets with a unique opportunity to reflect on the social desirability of the development of IVM. This work draws upon an analysis of ethical perceptions of IVM in 814 US news blog comments related to the August 2013 tasting of the world’s first IVM hamburger. Specifically, I address three primary questions: (1) How does the public perceive the ethics of IVM development? (2) How acceptable is IVM to the public relative to alternative approaches to reducing animal meat consumption? and (3) What should all of this mean for the ongoing development and promotion of IVM? Ultimately, it is argued that there is a strong need for facilitation of public dialogue around IVM, as well as further research comparing the acceptability of IVM to other alternatives.
9 pages, Sheep meat is an essential element within the multicultural mosaic of Mexican agri-food traditions. A total of 332 consumers were surveyed face-to-face in restaurants specializing in selling traditional sheep meat products. Our results showed that consumers could be segmented based on their perceptions, habits, and preferences towards sheep meat. For consumers, sheep meat is perceived as food with unique sensory attributes, coming from healthier animals than other species and traditional characters. Their willingness to pay extra is subject to the guarantee that the meat is safe, free of hormones and antibiotics, and to a lesser extent, certified organic. The multivariate analysis suggested three clusters or consumer profiles named passive, wholehearted, and deep-rooted, which explained the associations among attitudes, some demographic variables, and consumption frequency. The nascent national sheep meat industry needs to consider these concerns in developing marketing and trust strategies to attract, maintain, and build loyalty among Mexican consumers.
